childhood

Hena Khan has written a series of colorful, inspiring books that connect with children across the world and share the stories of Muslim characters. altM’s Asma Uddin spoke with Hena about her writing journey and what she’s learned from it all. Also check out altM’s previous interview with Hena. Asma:…

As a mother to three sons, I know how rambunctious boys can be. I know the games they play often involve battles, forts, and play fighting with sticks, straws, spoons and yes, even toy guns. To see boys whooping and tearing through backyards while re-enacting fight scenes from the latest…

Western etiquette dictates that there are three topics never to be discussed at a dinner party – personal finances, politics and sex. Somehow my Indo-Pakistani /Muslim compatriots missed the memo on the first two topics. At parties I am routinely asked what my husband makes and how much we paid…

Tonight like almost every night, I smear Vaseline between my toes, pull my hair into a bun, and go for a run with my Dad. Some nights I’m eager to sprint, opening my chest and elongating my stride the second I shut the door. Other times I stumble and begin…

It’s late at night, or maybe the wee hours of the morning before dawn. It’s quiet, the kind of quiet where you can hear the breathing patterns of everyone in the house and the creaks in walls and ceilings like invisible footsteps. Soft, yellow light glows like a halo around…

<< From the Altmuslimah Archives >> God tests us in a myriad of ways, and one of his biggest tests is parenthood. Children are inherently innocent, and their minds are sponges, absorbing everything around them.

The first creative writing piece I workshopped in undergrad told the story of a Pakistani engineering student who rebuilds her father’s mystical gulab jamun machine and saves Manhattan from a gang of neo-Nazis and their patrons on Wall Street. It was narrated by her friend, an insecure Muslim Iranian Dominican…

I love Halloween. I mean I really love Halloween. I grew up on a steady diet of ‘80’s detective shows: Murder She Wrote, Remington Steele, and Hart to Hart. I shunned those coveted books with scandalous “ABC Afterschool Special” adult content (I’m looking at you “Flowers in the Attic”)…

I could hear everything happening downstairs. Mother knocked on my door, grabbed my hand and together we scurried past the tiny corridor in our townhome and into the master bedroom. I walked across the carpet stained with soda marks and over to my siblings who were already cowering in the…